


Gethsemane

by Chloe_at_Eleusis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Mystery, On Hiatus, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-10
Updated: 2012-09-11
Packaged: 2017-11-13 23:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/508744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chloe_at_Eleusis/pseuds/Chloe_at_Eleusis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Conscience speaks, but she will do what they must. Dark AU. ::On hiatus.::</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not mine. No money.

Her breath grows shorter.

The silky voice inside her head is relentless. She can almost hear the liquid swirl of his robe in the rose-scented air. _You knew it would come. You knew it was coming. Ever since you left him there, on the floor…_

"There might be something else. Harry would never—"

_But_ _**you** _ _will._

"I didn't know this would happen. I didn't. I didn't. I wouldn't have…"

_But you_ _**will.** _

_You always have, haven't you, Hermione? Always._

She is shaking, her grip on her wand so tight that the frozen wooden vines are printing themselves into her flesh, the feel of it in her hand almost obscene.

_How long were you gone from Gryffindor tower that night?_

She grips even tighter, the palms and fingers pressing white. If she loosens her grip she will fling the wand from her hand.

_How long did he lie there?_

Her shoulders hunch, locking inward. "I couldn't—there was no other way—"

_Drugging classmates, playing with time, handing over Ministry officials for torture at the hands of centaurs._

_How right you are. Potter would never have done it, any of it. Never have thought to. Never have been able to._

_So you did it for him._

"I'm not—not like that… He would have died, I had to—"

_Whatever means necessary. Just be grateful it is not necessary that you traduce the Boy Who Lived._

She flinches away, cringing before the dark specter of her conscience, her own self-abnegation mixing with her moan of denial.

"No, not Harry—never…"

_You would do it…_

_But you do not have to. Ready yourself. He comes._

Her shaking stops, abruptly, and she straightens, slender and graceful in the center of the night garden.

The door in the wall behind her swings open, brushing against the roses behind it, their fragrance wafting through the warm May night. The tall, handsome boy comes to her swiftly, his hand reaching for hers.

Stopping in confusion as she levels her wand.

"Neville—I'm really, really sorry about this."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not mine. No money. ::On hiatus.::

Her terror has a savor, sweet and heady—but slightly bitter, like blackberry wine as it's turning.

How appropriate.

He watches her panic, unspeaking, as she hunts through the book from which she'd learned the spell.

Even in her almost-mindless dread she handles the ancient pages properly. Delicately.

It had not been, as he had thought, a careless mistake. She has translated the Greek correctly: it calls for a "pure vessel".

It is her lack of acquaintance with the Dark Arts, not carelessness or arrogance, that has condemned her.

Condemned them both.

She'd had no concept of what a person could be made to contain.

He had never seen himself in her— _And ah, the irony in those words…_

Her brash insecurity, her displays of weakness to anyone who'd eyes to see… She had intelligence, she had cunning—but neither in sufficient amounts to hide the extent of her power.

No, not like him. Not even worth comparing.

Until she had ignored his instruction and come charging up the tower steps.

As he'd turned to face her wand, his thought, incongruously, had been, _She had to pick_ now _to exercise some autonomy?_

She had finished casting then, and he'd thought, _That's not green…_

And the pale-blue light had hit.

His body crumpled as he left it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After posting the first chapter as a oneshot I realized that I had written and posted a portion of a scene from a very complex story, one that existed only in my head and that readers had no chance of understanding it until I told them some of the rest. So this one-shot has morphed into an I-don't-know-how-many-shots. It will continue until it's done.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think—reviews encourage me to keep writing and show me how to improve.


End file.
